Balanced Hackmons Viability Rankings Thread

Welcome to the official Balanced Hackmons viability rankings thread. Some of you may be asking just how it's possible to rank Pokemon in a tier with this many possibilities. For this reason, this thread has a few adaptions from other tiers' threads. First of all, the definitions are a little different. Rather than base tiers on defensive or offensive potential, broader definitions are used. Rankings are based on how much a strategy defines the metagame. Strategies, not Pokemon. Yes you heard right, this thread is going to rank strategies and common users of said strategies rather than just Pokemon. Within these strategy rankings will be Pokemon ranked for their ability to perform said strategy. Some Pokemon (like Shedinja) have a niche entirely their own and nothing else can really copy them. Some strategies may also appear more than once in the list. Suggested Pokemon are listed in order of viability.

EX: Imposter can be ranked in S tier for its ability to shut down set up Pokemon, as this greatly affects the metagame.

S Rank:Reserved for strategies requiring little support that define the metagame.

Imposter

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Rules
~Post intelligently. Posts like "I think pokemon X should be in this tier" will not be tolerated
~Please read the Balanced Hackmons thread and play the tier to get a feel for it before posting.
~No flaming
~There will be no separated tiers in BH
~DO NOT post Pokemon alone, post strategies with example Pokemon. The only exception is if a strategy SOLELY works with one Pokemon (such as Shedinja).

This strategy is somewhat anti-Imposter. Acrobatics will be the main sweeping move of these Pokemon, which (after the Flying Gem is used) will hit with 110 BP for you and only 55 for the opponent, assuming their item is intact. The Flying Gem's consumption will give you one hell of a strong hit and double your Speed at the same time! The coverage moves should ideally be resisted by the user. The Pokemon need a buffer against Prankster + status though, in which case Magic Coat and/or passing a Sub works quite well. On placement of the Pokemon: Rayquaza is ranked highest because of its combination of speed and power as well as its better ability to combat Imposter. Ho-Oh is the slowest and weakest, but has the most bulk. Archeops is the fastest, but is held back by its typing, which necessitates the use of a coverage move to take down Imposter Pokemon.

Also, Hyperbeem and I will be updating this as much as necessary until this list is a bit more extensive, at which point updates will slow down. I probably should've taken a more common strategy, but I really like my Unburden Rayquaza~

A rather nice strategy for messing up leads not named Deo-S, the opponent will almost certainly be thrown for a loop when none of their attacks are working and you just cruise on past them with a few boosts. Substitute can prevent the danger of Imposter Blissey copying your stat boosts, but it's a bit inadvisable, for you don't want to get rid of that extra coverage that is oh-so precious. Cons include it is shut down by Imposter Blissey who copies stat boosts and has much better HP to tank your hits, and Deo-S who can Spore you at the lead or if it has Mold Breaker. Toxic is also irritating if you're Giratina, as it whittles down his precious bulk very quickly. But if you can get past these threats NormSwap is a viable, and very effective strategy.

Oh, and you might like to add Choice Scarf to the items for Imposter, for it allows you to nearly always win the speed tie and proceed to sweep.

Two comments on the above post. First off skill swap normalizers should run spooky plate judgment and then aura sphere for a second move. Secondly in my mind this strategy is b rank, as it has no way to beat rhydon and other prankster heart swappers nor unaware mons once its skill swapped, meaning that while it can easily set up, it cant sweep until quite a few things have been removed.

Next id like to nominate scarf contrary for a rank.

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Basically there are three ways to stop this. Unaware mons, swift swim/sand rush/chlorophyll and prankster spore. If your team has none of these remaining there is little you can do to avoid being swept, as it will outrun and ohko all your mons after the first draco meteor. The big perk that reshiram has is that overheat in sun will 2hko unaware lugia and cress. As very few imposters nowadays run scarf, there is a very low chance of an impostermon beating this, as scarfinposters need to win the speed tie.

And ill post again once ive figured out how to classify what escavalier does...

Both of these get the same review simply because they are almost identical. They are the best sets for a weather speed booster, as it lets them beat Impostermons, whom could otherwise switch in and wreck havock on the team. The reason this is B-Rank is because it requires Weather Support (which is big imo) in order to function and it get beaten by Prankstermons, specifically those that carry Spore. It also has trouble breaking through bulkymon that aren't weak to the Fire / Water STABs.

Also, I'd like to point out that Sturdy Shedinja has Unburden as it's ability in it's Set.

Also, anything that doesn't use Physical Attacks should be at 0 Atk EVs / 0 Atk IVs imo. Not a big deal, but it helps vs Confusion Hax / lolFoulPlay I guess

Doubles President

The Reptile, those seem a little too specific, which outside of Shedinja is something we'd prefer to avoid. I'd be more apt to have two separate categories for those - Weather Abusers (Speed+) and Judgment Sweepers.

These Pokemon are highly useful because of the prevalence of the moves that magic bounce deflects. Recover is important for the Pokemon to stay alive and the switching move allows it to maintain momentum for its team. It doesn't need a lot of team support, because all it really needs is to do switch in to hazards, spore, or something similar. The choice of switching move is volt switch for special attackers and u-turn for physical. Baton pass is there so that if the Pokemon receives boosts from another member or gets its own, it can give them away. The item is leftovers, but by no means is it the only thing these Pokemon can run.

This set absolutely destroys entire teams if they don't have a solid counter against it. Slaking's gigantic HP stat lets it survive pretty much anything at over 25% (enough for Sitrus to boost it back to Belly Drum health), and its monstrous attack stat quadrupled by BD combined with its priority are enough to take down almost anything in one hit.

This strategy is very good for taking out defensive pokemon that have little offensive presence yet are difficult to KO. Magma Storm has significantly worse accuracy than Mean Look, yet it is preferable as it is not reflected by Magic Bounce or Magic Coat and even has the added bonus of being able to K.O Shedinja. The Ability is not necessary for the execution of the set, but SoundProof allows the pokemon to stay in while KOing the opponant, Magic Bounce is helpful to protect from spore, while No Guard could be used to boost Magma Storm's Accuracy and Mold Breaker to allow Mean Look to hit through Magic Bounce. Giratina has more bulk than Lugia, yet its weakness to Dragon can make it easy to KO. Lugia lacks a dragon weakness and has a helpful immunity to Ground while still being very bulky. Leftovers is the best item choice as it improves the set's survivability, while lum berry could be used when the Ability is not Magic Bounce.

I would also like to nominate Mold Breaker Spore for A rank:

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Spore, when backed by Mold Breaker is very difficult to stop if you don't have Magic Coat or a Lum Berry on whatever pokemon it switched in on, and has the potential to completely cripple unprepared teams. Deoxys-S is used for its incredible speed (fast enough to outspeed +1 base 95 pokemon) while Mewtwo can be used for the extra bulk and offensive presence. Lum berry is the best item in case of Magic Coat.

I also think that Deoxys-A should be removed from the contrary set (and "Sucky" removed from the title) as it is horribly outclassed as a contrary pokemon and should be replaced with Latios, Kyurem-W, Dialga and Reshiram. With this Psycho Boost should also be replaced with Substitute.

Additionally, we should change the descriptions for A and B rank as the current descriptions are based entirely on the amount of support a set needs, which does not determine the set's viability by itself.

Proposed Descriptions:A Rank: Reserved for sets than can sweep or wall significant portions of the metagame, but require some support or have some flaws that prevent them from doing this consistently. Supporting sets in this rank may give opponents free turns or cannot create free turns easily themselves, but can still do their job most of the time.

B Rank: Reserved for sets that require lots of support to be successful or are only useful for performing a specific offensive/defensive niche.

Finally, regarding DrRobotnik's Belly Drum set, Illusion should be added as a possible ability, Vital Spirit should be replaced with Sap Sipper and the Sitrus Berry should be replaced with Leftovers / Lum Berry / Sitrus Berry as Sitrus is only useful with Gluttony (which should be added as well).

While sap sipper and vital spirit both block spore, vital spirit blocks mold breaker spore, whereas sap sipper does not. For this reason, vital spirit is usually better. I also second the new descriptions for ranks.

I added soundproof to the set, but its worth noting that you probably want to switch out the pokemon after KOing the opposing pokemon anyway, as your opponant will probably not switch in an easily trapped pokemon afterwards.

While sap sipper and vital spirit both block spore, vital spirit blocks mold breaker spore, whereas sap sipper does not. For this reason, vital spirit is usually better. I also second the new descriptions for ranks.

This set aims to set up stealth rock without fail. Using Imprison on turn one makes it impossible for the enemy lead to use magic coat against you, and prevents the enemy from setting up stealth rock. You can then proceed to use stealth rock on turn two. Stealth rock is the most reliable way to KO shedinja, which makes this set viable in balanced hackmons.

Unfortunately, this set is countered by magic bounce leads, which are pretty common in this metagame.

Alternate abilities for this set are magic bounce and trace. Magic bounce is useful for preventing enemies from setting up hazards. Magic coat is still required on this set for Imprison to work effectively, and to counter mold breaker. Trace is a very interesting ability for a lead. It allows you to both take advantage of the enemy's ability and see what that ability is. This allows you to act accordingly.

This set absolutely destroys entire teams if they don't have a solid counter against it. Slaking's gigantic HP stat lets it survive pretty much anything at over 25% (enough for Sitrus to boost it back to Belly Drum health), and its monstrous attack stat quadrupled by BD combined with its priority are enough to take down almost anything in one hit.

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This set is also good using illusion, to confuse your enemies. I usually run lum berry to prevent Inferno or Spore, and have a moveset of b-drum, extreme speed, drain punch, and crunch. Regigigas is powerful enough to kill almost the entire metagame faster than it with extremespeed, and is fast enough to KO anything slower with crunch/drain punch.

The only counters for this set are prankster rhydon (gigas can OHKO groudon after rocks) and any unware set

I'd also like to nominate Imprison Contrary, which makes contrary much more viable. (probably B rank)

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this set can be run effectively with reshiram, lati@s, (pretty much most dragons), and many other pokemon that I'm too lazy to list.

If running lati@s, use soul dew.

By setting up imprison, you ensure three things:

1. This completely counters imposter blissey/chansey, because they have the same moveset as you, and therefore can only use struggle
2. This can somewhat counter other contrary boosters.
3. Most importantly, imprison prevents you from being heart swapped, making you very hard to shut down.

This set is very hard to wall (shedinja does a good job of walling it, but can easily be killed with rocks.) but it takes a turn to set up and is somewhat situational.

I added soundproof to the set, but its worth noting that you probably want to switch out the pokemon after KOing the opposing pokemon anyway, as your opponant will probably not switch in an easily trapped pokemon afterwards.

Also, I might add that the Normalize Skill Swap is also viable to go mixed, especially on Giratina. Just have your Booster be ShellSmash and replace Aura sphere with Close Combat or another powerful fighting move.

And on the Unaware Wall set, I have had much success with Punishment, which can be used to destroy the many boosting sweepers that almost no team will be caught dead without, although it is preferable to use it on a mon' with a better attack stat.

This set absolutely destroys entire teams if they don't have a solid counter against it. Slaking's gigantic HP stat lets it survive pretty much anything at over 25% (enough for Sitrus to boost it back to Belly Drum health), and its monstrous attack stat quadrupled by BD combined with its priority are enough to take down almost anything in one hit.

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Shouldn't Arceus be mentioned as one of its users?

And Scrappy as one of its Traits so ExtremeSpeed can land on ghost mons?

If you don't use Scrappy, then i guess Shadow Force is a better option over Shadow Sneak since you want to kill those bulky Giratina, and if Giratina has Prankster + Spore then Lum Berry can save you.

Toxic Orb + Magic Guard or Poison Heal is a long-term option over Lum Berry if you wanna avoid status (Magic Guard has the advantage of being immune to weather and such, and Poison Heal is better than Leftovers).

And Scrappy as one of its Traits so ExtremeSpeed can land on ghost mons?

If you don't use Scrappy, then i guess Shadow Force is a better option over Shadow Sneak since you want to kill those bulky Giratina, and if Giratina has Prankster + Spore then Lum Berry can save you.

Toxic Orb + Magic Guard or Poison Heal is a long-term option over Lum Berry if you wanna avoid status (Magic Guard has the advantage of being immune to weather and such, and Poison Heal is better than Leftovers).

Finally you could use Mold Breaker to destroy Unawere mons.

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Arceus doesn't have enough attack to OHKO some of the bulkier pokemon (Adamant regigigas can only guarantee an OHKO to groudon after rocks)

Also, this set is countered by prankster rhydon, which can survive both drain punch (by using prankster and outspeeding it) and extremespeed (with massive bulk and resistances).

On another note, I'd like to nominate Prankster + whirlwind (roarcats!) for C-rank

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This focuses on disrupting the enemy team and racking up hazard damage. By using copycat on whirlwind, prankster gives you a +1 priority phazing move. This allows you to continuously whirlwind your enemies for massive hazard damage. Dragon tail allows you to switch out enemies with Magic Bounce.

Unfortunately, this set requires a lot of set up. Setting up a good set of spikes and hazards is pretty hard to do in this metagame, but if you manage to pull of a good set up you can deal a good amount of damage to the enemy.

Some counters to this include magic coat, taunt, and magic bounce. Fortunately, using dragon tail makes it so these don't render you entirely useless.

Another set for A or B rank: Magic guard+Toxic orb

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Pokemon: This set works well on pokemon like Ho-Oh who are vulnerable to stealth rock

This set provides an almost unresisted set of moves, while being immune to hazards and status. The purpose of this is to give pokemon like Ho-oh, who would normally die on switch in, with stealth rock being so common, a chance to be useful.

Flare Blitz and Wood Hammer are useful moves because they have high power, and magic guard protects you from the recoil. Magic guard also happens to protect from Hi Jump Kick crash damage, making it a much more reliable move. Psycho Shift allows you to get rid of unwanted status like burn/paralyz, while also allowing you to spread toxic everywhere. This can get rid of bulky dragons like giratina, which this set has trouble dealing with. However, Head Smash is an alternative move which deals TONS OF DAMAGE. This can be used to dispatch of enemy lugia or Ho-Oh.

This provides counters to shedinja through psycho shift, prankster rhydon through wood hammer, and any spore users with toxic orb.

And Scrappy as one of its Traits so ExtremeSpeed can land on ghost mons?

If you don't use Scrappy, then i guess Shadow Force is a better option over Shadow Sneak since you want to kill those bulky Giratina, and if Giratina has Prankster + Spore then Lum Berry can save you.

Toxic Orb + Magic Guard or Poison Heal is a long-term option over Lum Berry if you wanna avoid status (Magic Guard has the advantage of being immune to weather and such, and Poison Heal is better than Leftovers).

Finally you could use Mold Breaker to destroy Unawere mons.

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So many viable abilities with this set. I disagree with Shadow Force, though, as they could easily switch into a Normal type for free.